What do you think?
Rate this book
Gullah Cultural Legacies: A Synopsis of Gullah Traditions, Customary Beliefs, Art Forms and Speech on Hilton Head Island and Vicinal Sea Islands in South Carolina and Georgia
This book contains significant cultural words and terms of the Gullah Culture. It is an attempt to promote a better understanding of past traditions and present day practices in preventing permanent loss of memory of those terms that are truly Gullah. Most of the terms are currently used in the everyday vocabulary of Gullah speakers, while others have fallen into disuse but have been recalled for inclusion in this work.
The content of this book is based entirely on my experience of growing up Gullah on Hilton Head Island in the mid 20th century before the Island was connected by a bridge to the mainland.
Life on Hilton Head Island between the 1860s and the 1960s was a unique, cultural experience when compared to mainland lifestyle during the same period. The culture that thrived on Hilton Head and other Coastal Islands in the region had its beginning on the West Coast of Africa. Before being imported to the Sea Islands during the despicable slave trade period between the 1500’s and early 1800s, West Africans not only survived, they thrived - spiritually, intellectually, and physically - mainly because family members and families bonded to one another. After slavery, a close- knit community evolved with these basic qualities already in place drawing on each separately and collectively as time moved from period to period.
Throughout the history of Gullah culture, place has been important - whether it was the huge oak tree in the forest where a "young soul" went to meditate while "seeking" or the "landing" where a fisherman kept his or her "bateau" so it would float appropriately when the tide was right to "go casting."
The Gullah language, perhaps more than any other cultural asset, has allowed Gullah people to remain one big family. It has kept us intellectual, esoteric and protected. Yet it has been so attractive to others that the entire culture has reached the larger world.
Like with all cultures, food grounds the Gullah culture. Saltwater rice-eating Geechees is the term commonly used among Black people to describe their African kins who live along the saltwater coast. The key word here is rice, a most enjoyable staple in the daily diet of every traditional Gullah family. The fact that West Africans had been growing and preparing delicious rice dishes five thousand years before the slave trade began is not lost on our love of rice dishes. A mulatto rice Pilau with freshly fried fish; swimp & okra and matos (gumbo); peas and rice; sweet tater; and watermelon would all but confirm the Gullah legacy.
Our spirituality has always been secured by an abiding faith in varied historic beliefs that may transcend religions and denominations. Some Gullah people on occasions combine Christian beliefs with those of ancient Africa to satisfy their spiritual need. For example, one might combine meditation at the mourning bench with a hand from a witch doctor to meet one's worldly need.
Art forms have always been critical to the survival of Gullah people. A bateau and a cast net have been used for hundreds of years to gather food from creeks and rivers when access to natural resources was truly available to everyone. Also, a sweet grass basket has been a valuable houseware, which is today a much- desired commemorative art.
Like most cultures, the Gullah culture has not changed solely on its own terms. Most changes have been forced on it through land use and other mainstream policies despite resistance and the obvious inability for various reasons to adapt to the new culture. These policies are often the result of policy makers not understanding the culture and in some cases unwilling to learn.
The content of this book is based entirely on my experience of growing up Gullah on Hilton Head Island in the mid 20th century before the Island was connected by a bridge to the mainland.
Life on Hilton Head Island between the 1860s and the 1960s was a unique, cultural experience when compared to mainland lifestyle during the same period. The culture that thrived on Hilton Head and other Coastal Islands in the region had its beginning on the West Coast of Africa. Before being imported to the Sea Islands during the despicable slave trade period between the 1500’s and early 1800s, West Africans not only survived, they thrived - spiritually, intellectually, and physically - mainly because family members and families bonded to one another. After slavery, a close- knit community evolved with these basic qualities already in place drawing on each separately and collectively as time moved from period to period.
Throughout the history of Gullah culture, place has been important - whether it was the huge oak tree in the forest where a "young soul" went to meditate while "seeking" or the "landing" where a fisherman kept his or her "bateau" so it would float appropriately when the tide was right to "go casting."
The Gullah language, perhaps more than any other cultural asset, has allowed Gullah people to remain one big family. It has kept us intellectual, esoteric and protected. Yet it has been so attractive to others that the entire culture has reached the larger world.
Like with all cultures, food grounds the Gullah culture. Saltwater rice-eating Geechees is the term commonly used among Black people to describe their African kins who live along the saltwater coast. The key word here is rice, a most enjoyable staple in the daily diet of every traditional Gullah family. The fact that West Africans had been growing and preparing delicious rice dishes five thousand years before the slave trade began is not lost on our love of rice dishes. A mulatto rice Pilau with freshly fried fish; swimp & okra and matos (gumbo); peas and rice; sweet tater; and watermelon would all but confirm the Gullah legacy.
Our spirituality has always been secured by an abiding faith in varied historic beliefs that may transcend religions and denominations. Some Gullah people on occasions combine Christian beliefs with those of ancient Africa to satisfy their spiritual need. For example, one might combine meditation at the mourning bench with a hand from a witch doctor to meet one's worldly need.
Art forms have always been critical to the survival of Gullah people. A bateau and a cast net have been used for hundreds of years to gather food from creeks and rivers when access to natural resources was truly available to everyone. Also, a sweet grass basket has been a valuable houseware, which is today a much- desired commemorative art.
Like most cultures, the Gullah culture has not changed solely on its own terms. Most changes have been forced on it through land use and other mainstream policies despite resistance and the obvious inability for various reasons to adapt to the new culture. These policies are often the result of policy makers not understanding the culture and in some cases unwilling to learn.
- GenresNonfiction
118 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2006
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 28, 2023
Such an enlightening history book about the Gullah Geechee culture. In reading this book, I learned as a young adult that the ways of many of my oldest North Carolinian relatives had been greatly influenced by Gullah traditions and speech. When exposed to this during childhood, I had only heard some vague comments about "Geechee people." I thought the things I was hearing, eating and seeing were just part of our small town way of living.
This book sparked a deep interest in me to study more about the Gullah legacy and more about my family ancestry in general - an interest I am still pursuing to this day. For that reason, this little book holds a special place in my heart. I am very grateful to the author and renowned historian, Mr. Emory Campbell, for sharing a rich history that is not shared in mainstream history books.
This book sparked a deep interest in me to study more about the Gullah legacy and more about my family ancestry in general - an interest I am still pursuing to this day. For that reason, this little book holds a special place in my heart. I am very grateful to the author and renowned historian, Mr. Emory Campbell, for sharing a rich history that is not shared in mainstream history books.
March 2, 2025
Read in preparation for Living Legacy Pilgrimage in South Carolina and Georgia.
First of all, I loved the cover art in this Third Edition: Family at Work (1988), by Jonathan Green.
I had to go look up Jonathan Green and buy his book: Gullah Images: The Art of Jonathan Green, University of South Carolina Press Columbia. 1996.
I appreciated the glossary of Gullah words and terms and the explanation of the connection with language in use in Sierra Leone.
This book, by long-time Executive Director of the Penn Center on St. Helena Island, SC, tells stories of the traditional ways of life on the Sea Islands (horses, boats, education, food, music), preserving history for visitors, scholars, and future generations.
Looking forward to visiting some of the places described in the book.
First of all, I loved the cover art in this Third Edition: Family at Work (1988), by Jonathan Green.
I had to go look up Jonathan Green and buy his book: Gullah Images: The Art of Jonathan Green, University of South Carolina Press Columbia. 1996.
I appreciated the glossary of Gullah words and terms and the explanation of the connection with language in use in Sierra Leone.
This book, by long-time Executive Director of the Penn Center on St. Helena Island, SC, tells stories of the traditional ways of life on the Sea Islands (horses, boats, education, food, music), preserving history for visitors, scholars, and future generations.
Looking forward to visiting some of the places described in the book.
June 3, 2014
I bought the book at the museum on Hilton Head Island from where the Campbell family conducts tours of the Island's Gullah communities. The author is connected to the much broader Gullah community by way of his work with the Penn Center on St. Helena Island, a culteral center for all the Gullah/Geechee folk on the Atlantic coast. This is not an academic tome, and does not pretend to present a professional historian's or sociologist's assessment of the culture. Rather, it is one Gullah man's attempt to convey what the community has retained of its heritage, in its remnant patois, in "Tings I Member" - the things they did and how they lived, and in the few remaining landmarks on the Sea Coast Islands. Much of it is reminiscence.
It is a very good casual introduction to the basics of the culture and the life that the led, not so long ago.
It is a very good casual introduction to the basics of the culture and the life that the led, not so long ago.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews